Tech experts and academics from all over Europe were in Ireland this week, collaborating on the future of wireless beyond 5G.

Waterford Institute of Technology’s TSSG group played host to industry partners Dell EMC as well as partners in the Terapod (terahertz-based ultra-high bandwidth access network) group, a €3m EU-backed consortium.

‘This is beyond 5G and it could even be 8G or 10G, and could serve demands that are 10 or 20 years down the road’ Says Dr. Alan Davy

Terapod is devising a novel way of communicating wirelessly for the decades to come.

The future of wireless

Currently, the state of the art is in the 60GHz spectrum range, at millimetre wave.

However, the terahertz spectrum range is in the sub-millimetre range, or 300GHz, between high-frequency infrared (IR) and just below optical physical light.

A good analogy would be the split second it takes for the new Face ID sensors on the iPhone X smartphone to examine 33,000 IR dots that map your face and unlock the phone, even in poor light conditions.

“Very close but in terahertz, rather than depth sensing on the face, imagine doing that in high resolution,” explained Dr Alan Davy, leader of the Terapod team at TSSG.